Corn price action is down 1 to 3 cents in the front months on Friday morning. Futures closed the Thursday session with contracts fractionally to 4 cents higher across the board. Open interest rose another 28,874 contracts on Thursday. March expires on Friday, with another 49 deliveries issued overnight. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 2 1/4 cents to $4.19 ¾. Crude oil was up another $9.15 on Thursday to add to some spillover support.
Export Sales data from Thursday morning showed 1.53 MMT of old crop corn sold in the week ending on March 5. That was down from last week, but 58.2% larger than the same week last year. Japan was the top buyer of 670,000 MT, with 367,600 MT sold to Mexico and 209,100 MT to South Korea. New crop sales were just 500 MT.
Census data showed 6.61 MMT (260.1 mbu) of corn shipped in January, which was a record for the month. Distillers were the highest in 4 years for January at 1.01 MMT. Ethanol shipments were 212.07 million gallons a record.
CONAB estimates the Brazilian corn crop at 138.27 MMT, down 0.18 MMT from last month, as the second crop number was trimmed by 0.83 MMT to 108.43 MMT.
Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.48 1/4, up 4 cents, currently unch
Nearby Cash was $4.19 3/4, up 2 1/4 cents,
May 26 Corn closed at $4.62 1/2, up 2 1/4 cents, currently down 1 1/4 cents
Jul 26 Corn closed at $4.74, up 2 cents, currently down 1 1/2 cents
